HOLMES.] CLIFF-HOUSES, EIO MANCOS. 385 



trail and river, as shown in the accompanying profile (Figure 3). The 

 line hod represents the deepest part of the recess, against which the 

 walls are built. To the right of b, the shelf ceases, and the vertical face 

 of rock is unbroken. At the left, beyond a, the edge is not so abrupt, 

 and the cliffs below are so broken that one can ascend with ease. 

 Above, the roof comes forward and curves upward, as seen in thfe profile. 



The most striking feature of this structure is the round room, which 

 occurs about the middle of the ruin and inside of a large rectangular 

 apartment. 



The occurrence of this circular chamber in this place is highly signifi- 

 cant, and tends greatly to confirm my previously-stated opinion that the 

 circle had a high significance with these people. Their superstitious 

 seem to have been so exacting in this matter that, even when driven 

 to the extremity of building and dwelling in the midst of these desolate 

 cliffs, an inclosure of this form could not be dispensed with; a circular 

 estufa had to be constructed at whatever cost of labor and convenience. 



Its walls are not high and not entirely regular, and the inside is 

 curiously fashioned with offsets and box-like projections. It is plas- 

 tered smoothly, and bears considerable evidence of having been used, 

 although I observed no traces of fire. The entrance to this chamber is 

 rather extraordinary, and further attests the peculiar importance at- 

 tached to it by the builders, and their evident desire to secure it from all 

 possibility of intrusion. A walled and covered passage-way,/,/, of solid 

 masonry, 10 feet of which is still intact, leads from an outer chamber 

 through the small intervening apartments into the circular one. It is 

 possible that this originally extended to the outer wall, and was entered 

 from the outside. If so, the person desiring to visit the estufa would 

 have to enter an aperture about twenty-two inches high by thirty wide, 

 and crawl, in the most abject manner possible, through a tube-like pas- 

 sage-way nearly twenty feet in length. My first impression was that 

 this peculiarly-constructed door-way was a precaution against enemies,, 

 and that it was probably the only means of entrance to the interior of 

 the house ; but I am now inclined to think this hardly probable, and 

 conclude that it was rather designed to render a sacred chamber as free 

 as possible from profane intrusion. The apartments ?, fc, m, n do not 

 require any especial description, as they are quite plain and almost empty. 

 The partition-walls have never been built up to the ceiling of the niche, 

 and the inmates, in passing from one apartment to another, have 

 climbed over. The row of apertures indicated in the main front wall 

 are about five feet from the floor, and were doubtless intended for the 

 insertion of beams, although there is no evidence that a second floor 

 has at any time existed. In that part of the ruin about the covered 

 passage-way, the walls are complicated, and the plan can hardly be 

 made out, while the curved wall enclosing the apartment e is totally 

 overthrown. 



In digging among the debris with our hammers, we came upon a large 

 earthen vessel at /«,, and shortly afterward discovered another near i. 

 They were so situated in a small recess under the sheltering walls that 

 the falling rubbish had not reached them. Eoughly-hewn stone lids 

 were fitted carefully over the tops, but both were empty. One had been 

 slightly broken about the rim, while the other had been pierced on the 

 under side by some sharp instrument, and had been mended by laying 

 a small fragment of pottery over the aperture on the inside and cement- 

 ing it down with clay. They are of the ordinary corrugated pottery, 

 and have a capacity of about three gallons. 



Beneath the vessels, spread out on the floor, was a large jjiece of rush- 



